GAZA CITY, Sept 16: An Egyptian using a false Palestinian identity card was shot dead on Monday by Israeli troops near a military roadblock in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical and security sources said.

The man, who was said by the Israelis to have been armed, was killed between Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis, security sources said.

The man, who was initially identified as a Palestinian due to the identity card found on his body, was later discovered to be an Egyptian national using the identity card of a Palestinian man unconnected to the affair, Palestinian medical sources and witnesses said.

Abdul Fatah Said Abdu, 27, entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt in Dec 2000, some three months after the start of the intifada, in a bid to fight alongside the Palestinians, witnesses said.

He had been living secretly in the southern border town of Rafah, hiding in local residents’ homes and using the false identity card, they said.

Earlier this year a flurry of Egyptians tried to cross into the Gaza Strip to join the uprising.—AFP